PEORIA, Ariz.  From a seat in the Peoria Sports Complex less than four miles from where he went to high school, Jaff Decker enjoyed watching spring training, as major leaguers readied themselves for the regular season.

Today, those same seats are being filled with people coming out to watch Decker, now an outfielder for the Padres, readying himself for Opening Day.

“Growing up here watching Tony Gwynn play, Ken Griffey Jr. and Barry Bonds... The spring training atmosphere is fun and playing now, having people come out to the spring training games to watch me play..,just being from here and then being drafted by the Padres is pretty exciting.”

Decker still resides in Peoria and his father comes out almost everyday to watch batting practice and games with his mother.

Decker is just one of several Padres with Arizona connections, be it where they grew up, where they went to college, or where they live in the offseason, it means having friends, family and former teammates alike filling the stands of the Peoria Sports Complex.

Across the Valley of the Sun, in Tempe, Travis Buck played college baseball at Arizona State University from 2003-2005 before being drafted 36th overall in the 2005 Major League Draft by the Oakland Athletics.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better experience,” Buck recalls about his time at ASU.

Buck still calls Arizona home, and enjoys watching his alma mater play. “I get to go watch some of the baseball games at Arizona State, a lot of the fans come out and support the former players that are in the Cactus League and it’s always good to see the former players who have come before you or you played with at ASU.”

Buck joined the Padres in large part because of Pat Murphy, his head coach at Arizona State who joined the Padres organization in 2010 and is now manager of the Padres’ Triple-A affiliate.

“Once we reach professional baseball everyone always wants to ask what’s ASU like because it’s not these other programs that no ones cares about. I just tell them you’ll never understand because it’s so special,” said Buck, who said Murphy recruited him to join the Padres. “He’s one of, if not the biggest reason for me signing with San Diego. Worst case scenario, I’m in Triple-A playing for a guy who is a very good friend, a good person who I have much respect for and knows me and it would be a blast to play for him again.”

In his 15 seasons at ASU, Pat Murphy led the Sun Devils to an impressive four Pac-10 championships as well as being awarded Pac-10 Coach of the Year four times. The Padres hired Murphy in 2010 as a Special Assistant to Baseball Operations before he was named manager of the Tucson Padres in October.

As for coach Murphy’s homecoming, he said he never left. “In that whole move and in that transition the key was the people, and to be around Travis again makes it feel like home, Travis has always been special to me.”

“It’s kind of a fraternity. It’s a sacred thing we all take very serious and regardless of what era or year we went there we all have that in common, said Buck.”